Getting ready for the season

Yes it is hot and humid outside but now is the real time to get ready. We all dream of taking a trophy buck on opening day of bow season or gun season. In order to do this now is the time to get started for it. Most of the time we wait till the last few days or weeks before the season’s opening day to do all the work, so now we have to make a change for the better.

Take time now to check all your gear such as bows, arrows, guns, and even scopes for your rifle. Now is also a good time to practice shooting weather it may be a gun or bow. Shooting at a target now will get you set for when that first game pokes it’s head out. Check all food sources now and scout to see what deer maybe eating. There will be a chance that some of this food source will still be available for opening day in the southern regions such as Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.

Go into the woods now and start by trimming some shooting lanes for your bow setup. We all hate the times that when a deer steps into shooting range and then we don’t have the shot due to a tree limb blocking the shot. These shots for a trophy buck only come once in a lifetime for most average hunter’s. I have had great success in the past at harvesting a doe for some early season deer meat.

Most of the hunters in Alabama will be on the road to their hunting grounds around Labor Day weekend. They use this time to plant fall food plots, or at least start preparing the ground works of bush-hogging and plowing of the dirt. I think that a lot of hunters mess up here by planting to early. I good idea would be to wait until just a few weekends later maybe in September some time. This will allow your deer to finish off any summer time forge they may be able to find.

Once you have taken the time plan what you are going to plant, make sure that you can allow 10 to 15 days for a spraying process such as round-up on and around the food plots. This will allow you plenty of time to plant things such as chicory and clover and you will not have other late summer grasses competing for fertilizer or lime that you lay out. Keeping unwanted grasses out will allow you with a more beautiful food plot for your deer.

If you have planted corn and still have it standing then leave it this way. Standing beans and corn will allow deer and turkey cover in the fall and also will help you see more in the winter as they come in to search for these foods. Based on your corn field size try mowing strips into it 10 to 25 yards wide and plow and spread winter foods where you have mowed. Most people like to mow the entire field down and when they do this deer and turkey loose this food in the extreme cold days of winter.

I hope these few steps will help you on opening day like they have done for me and my friends in the past. Stay on the right road and you can’t go wrong for being on the wrong road to success. Planting to early can cost you mainly because the deer and turkey eat them up to fast. I have heard people say my food plots look like crap. What these food plots look like are as if someone has took a lawn mower to it. So start getting ready now for opening day.